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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 20th May 2005 at 8:51 PM
Default Hair meshes? Transparent?!?!
*first post on MTS2* hee hee

I get a problem with hair meshes some meshes look "transparent" in body shop... any idea how to fix this problem as its really bugging me

See pic for what i mean..
the mesh is janna's carrer girl mesh from sims connection
Screenshots
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Test Subject
#2 Old 20th May 2005 at 8:55 PM
I have a few like that on mine, but I assumed theyw ere meant to be that way and just didnt use them.
Guest
#3 Old 20th May 2005 at 8:58 PM
I have the exact mesh in my game. It'll look fine in game.
Instructor
#4 Old 21st May 2005 at 5:21 AM Last edited by pinhead : 21st May 2005 at 5:26 AM.
i don't have sure about exactly what is causing this problem, but i know that some "problematic" hairs that start to be reported were created by wes plugin. The plugin is great but isn't finished and never was made to this purpose (create hair meshes)

so, maybe (seeing your screenshot) your graphic card can handle bumpmaps (looks powerfull) and i know that the plugin skipped bumpmaps sectors of the GMDC.

try to set the game graphics to low and medium and look if the mesh will be better. if not, maybe is other problem but for sure is caused by the way that the mesh was made.

if this not help i have other suggestion but i will wait until you answer
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#5 Old 21st May 2005 at 11:23 AM
To be honest, i dont really play thegame that much so im not concerned about what it looks like in game. I am a clothing/makeup creator and i was just looking to use this mesh in my sceen shots that i take in body shop. So i was hoping there was some way to fix this.

I do love this mesh and if it doesnt show up right i guess im gonna have to take my screen shots in game *sigh* oh well...

I asked this question over at TSR and they said that it was something to do with the duplicating (layering) of a hair mesh...
Lab Assistant
#6 Old 21st May 2005 at 3:11 PM
I have that same problem and with other meshes as well. I just sent an email to the creator and a list of the meshes giving me problems. We just have to wait and see what they find out problem wise.
Instructor
#7 Old 21st May 2005 at 11:28 PM Last edited by pinhead : 21st May 2005 at 11:37 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by oO0Lola0Oo
To be honest, i dont really play thegame that much so im not concerned about what it looks like in game. I am a clothing/makeup creator and i was just looking to use this mesh in my sceen shots that i take in body shop. So i was hoping there was some way to fix this.

I do love this mesh and if it doesnt show up right i guess im gonna have to take my screen shots in game *sigh* oh well...

I asked this question over at TSR and they said that it was something to do with the duplicating (layering) of a hair mesh...


If i'm not wrong, the graphic settings inside the game reflects the settings for bodyshop. So, maybe, if the problem was gone with low or medium settings, if you keep this setting in the game, bodyshop will use it as well and you can make screenshots with bodyshop.
But i really don't have sure if the transparency of the mesh that you get is because of missing GMDC's bump sectors. So, you need to test it.

Other thing, the layered mesh don't looks to be the problem, since some of maxis hair meshes has layers as well. If you don't have problems with maxis meshes is possible that is caused by the plugin used (like i said, was not made to support create hair meshes).

btw, i have this mesh and i don't have this problem. Maybe because my graphics card is low (geforce fx 5200) and don't have support for bumpmaps.
but is just a guess, you know. i don't have sure.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#8 Old 21st May 2005 at 11:40 PM
Quote: Originally posted by pinhead
The graphic settings inside the game reflects the settings for bodyshop. So, maybe, if the problem was gone with low or medium settings, if you keep this setting in the game, bodyshop will use it as well and you can make screenshots with bodyshop.
But i really don't have sure if the transparency of the mesh that you get is because of missing GMDC's bump sectors. So, you need to test it.

Other thing, the layered mesh don't looks to be the problem, since some of maxis hair meshes has layers as well. If you don't have problems with maxis meshes is possible that is caused by the plugin used (like i said, was not made to support create hair meshes).

btw, i have this mesh and i don't have this problem. Maybe because my graphics card is low (geforce fx 5200) and don't have support for bumpmaps.


Well i shall have a go at changing my in game setting and see if that helps... Im not sure if my card supports bump maps though....???
Test Subject
#9 Old 21st May 2005 at 11:45 PM
Mine does the same, and I have been wondering about it forever. Several meshes do this to me...idk what my game settings are but the next time I play I'm gonna check and see if changing them will help any. (If only it didnt take so long to change graphic settings. :-(
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#10 Old 22nd May 2005 at 1:07 AM
Well i changed my graphics settings (they were set on low to begin with) and once i changed it to medium, there was a slight change, and then to high there was another slight change... But the mesh is still see through, I guess it probably is my graphics card seeing as i have a Intel 82845G/GL card...
Instructor
#11 Old 22nd May 2005 at 1:51 AM
hmm..
i was thinking that the problem was related to bumps but now i think that is not. Since graphic settings in low mode can't use bumps.
i will try send to you this mesh modified with something that maybe is related but i'm not sure (again) lol
check your PM Lola.
Test Subject
#12 Old 22nd May 2005 at 2:57 AM
I have the same mesh only mine has a black shadow over the hair
Instructor
#13 Old 22nd May 2005 at 3:26 AM
Quote: Originally posted by pinhead
so, maybe (seeing your screenshot) your graphic card can handle bumpmaps (looks powerfull) and i know that the plugin skipped bumpmaps sectors of the GMDC.

try to set the game graphics to low and medium and look if the mesh will be better. if not, maybe is other problem but for sure is caused by the way that the mesh was made.


That's not it, b/c I've got a x850xt and everything works perfectly. I'm thinking maybe it's the other way around, that something's tripping up the lower end cards? No idea what it is though, cuz I've never had this problem.
Instructor
#14 Old 22nd May 2005 at 4:10 AM
The problem was discovered already. I sent a modified file to Lola and she test it.
The problem is related to the opacity of the mesh.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#15 Old 22nd May 2005 at 1:28 PM
thanks for helping me pinhead. I fixed all the meshes that had the problem... thanks once again! :D
Lab Assistant
#16 Old 22nd May 2005 at 1:36 PM
How did you fix them??? I got like 4 meshes that are doing that to me.
Instructor
#17 Old 22nd May 2005 at 1:37 PM
How do I fix the meshes :confused:
Lab Assistant
#18 Old 22nd May 2005 at 1:59 PM
I'd love to know how to fix them as well. this happens to me with allot of sims connection hair (like working girl) and some other hair. it's gotten to the point where alot of the hair i download turns out like this. :/
Lab Assistant
#19 Old 22nd May 2005 at 3:28 PM
I was asking Lola or pinhead ....how do I fix the meshes?
Instructor
#20 Old 22nd May 2005 at 8:35 PM
it's not so easy to understand to people that don't know how to deal with hexadecimal numbers.
if was so easy to correct, the solution was here. I meant, i will try post how to fix, but if you don't know how to do it, please, wait the creator fix that.

After you click on Geometric Data Container, go to "Items 3" tab.
There you will see the group names (hair, hair_alpha3, hair_alpha5,.. and so on)
Select one of the alpha groups. I will try to explain how this works,
but it's a little complicate.
If the number of the alpha group is 3 you need to change the opacity
(third box) 0xFFFFFFFF to 0x00000003. If is 5 you need to change to 5.
If is 7, change to 7 and so on. After number 9 the hex change to
letters until reach the F and then will start again with 10, 11, 12..
So, 0x0000000A will be 10, B will be 11, C will be 12... If you get
one mesh that has alpha13 you need to convert 13 to hexadecimal (will
be 0x0000000D). You can use a little tool in SimPE to convert the
decimal numbers to hexadecimal. Menu "Tools/Hex<->Dec converter"
remember, after 0x will be always 8 numbers. No more and no less.

The hair group will always have the opacity 0xFFFFFFFF
Lab Assistant
#21 Old 22nd May 2005 at 9:20 PM
it's a bit over my head, but that was a really through explanation. thanks for giving us one anyway .
Lab Assistant
#22 Old 23rd May 2005 at 12:23 AM
Waaay over my head...lol. Thanks for answering though.
Scholar
#23 Old 23rd May 2005 at 4:17 PM
Thanks, Pinhead - I was not having this problem myself, nor had anyone complained of having it with my hair meshes.

However, this method did correct a very odd problem that was happening on a hair mesh I was working on.

It had a strange transparent outline around the hair strands when viewed from certain angles - hard to describe, it was as if there was a very thin transparent border around the edges of the hair itself, where I could see through even the hair on the other side of the Sim's head in that area. This was also more noticable in BodyShop than in the game, but still visible in the game if I rotated the view to certain positions to look for it.

Your solution fixed this problem.

These numbers must tell the game in which order to put on the various layers of the hair.

It must be that certain video cards are more sensitive to these layers going on in the wrong order.

I will be sure to check this in every hair mesh I make.
Instructor
#24 Old 24th May 2005 at 1:07 AM
Yep! I was not having this transparent problem also.
In the past couple weeks i found that solution to fix those transparent edges, but i didn't said anything because i was investigating and learning how the opacity of the hairs works. After i saw this thread i start to thinking if both problems was related and i was right.
so, the layers of the mesh had differents values in the original maxis mesh and if you create more layers you have to include it in different group and use a different value for opacity. I know how to deal with them, i made a lot of tests to understand everything. So far what i can tell is that when you create a layered mesh, every single layer has to be placed in separate groups and with different opacity values, varying for the most internal layer to the external layer. For me is a little hard to explain what i know, since my english vocabulary is very limited. But is something like the internal layer has a low value that the middle and the most external has a value more higher that the middle and the internal and so on.
Administrator of Loverat's Tea and Underpants
#25 Old 24th May 2005 at 1:33 AM
Pinhead, of course I understand your explanation of how to fix these meshes but for future reference let me ask you if this is correct:

The layer closest to the head is the "hair" group, and it is 0xFFFFFFFF (not transparent at all) serving as a base layer. After that, each layer is slightly more transparent than the last, with the most external layer being the most transparent.

Just in case I need to know. :D

RG
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